Absence of analyst’s insight noticed

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The bottom line: our ranking criteria measures and rewards performance, not size. That’s why a company such as Graymark Healthcare Inc., which was unranked last year and whose market value isn’t near the ballpark of, say, the state’s largest energy company, is listed higher than Devon Energy Corp.

Looking ahead

After shrinking to as low as 33 a few years ago — from 50 — the Oklahoma Inc. list of stocks has grown again in the last few years. Next year, the Hiland companies will be removed from the list if Harold Hamm takes them private, but there’ll likely be a couple of newcomers. Chaparral Energy is expected to trade under "CPR” on the New York Stock Exchange in December. The company in October struck a $1.8 billion deal with United Refining Energy Corp., a special purpose acquisition company lead by John Catsimatidis, who earlier tried to run reorganizing bankrupt Tulsa energy SemGroup LP.

And one company to watch for a possible move to a major exchange is the Beard Co. Beard, which shows a 43.5 percent increase in total return among bulletin board stocks in the rankings, has traded as high as $11.73 this year before offering a stock split earlier this month. Clearly, this is not a penny stock.

Clytie Bunyan joined The Oklahoman in 1989 as a Metro desk reporter. She later moved to the Business desk to cover real estate and presided over extensive coverage in the 1990s about the then-uncertain future of the Skirvin Hotel. She also has...